US album release: Rubber Soul

Three days after its UK release, Capitol Records issued The Beatles’ Rubber Soul album in the US.

It was considerably different from how The Beatles had intended it to sound, however, as Capitol reconfigured its tracklisting to create a ‘folk rock’ album to please the US market. They added ‘I’ve Just Seen A Face’ and ‘It’s Only Love’ from Help!, and omitted ‘Drive My Car’, ‘Nowhere Man’, ‘What Goes On’, and ‘If I Needed Someone’.

Additionally, the stereo mix sent from England to the US had a false start at the beginning of ‘I’m Looking Through You’; this version can be heard on the box set The Capitol Albums Vol. 2, which also contains minor variations in ‘The Word’.

Rubber Soul was a huge hit with the American public, spending 59 weeks in the US charts from 25 December 1965. It topped the Billboard chart on 8 January 1966, and sold 1.2 million copies in its first nine days on sale.